Time out

Over the last little while I have noticed an increase in feelings of being frantic, sped up, anxious and not sleeping well. In the world we live in now days, this can be a common experience. As an experiment I decided that I was going to take a break from the computer and the phone and so I shut everything off. I noticed right away a sense of something missing and feelings of needing to do something but I did not sway - I stayed with it and all those pressures started slipping away. I put on some relaxing music and sat quietly. After some time I got up and started cleaning the clutter of the studio - my areas to work in were getting smaller and smaller - it was energizing to create some order with the time I would normally be giving to maintaining all my web presences or returning phone calls. I noticed that I was no longer experiencing those frantic feelings and when I got tired I went to bed and slept peacefully through the night. I awoke the next day feeling very rested and relaxed.

I think that I will work to make time for this in my life; take deliberate pauses from cyberspace.

I recommend highly to anyone who may share those feelings of pressure and anxiety to give this a try. It was amazingly simple yet effective.

Finally completed "Earth Song", a carved and painted gourd done in the style of Pueblo pottery. This piece turned out better than I anticipated and I'm so excited! I took photos of the process so I will share with you here how I did it.

After cleaning the gourd and cutting the top off to create the look of pottery, I drew in the design...

Once I was satisfied with the drawing, I had to determine which parts I wanted to carve out. Once this was decided it took me two days to complete the carving (not all day - 2 hours each day).

I probably spent at this point 2 or 3 days trying to visualize a color scheme. I loved how it was coming along and I didn't want to mess it up with the wrong colors. I finally chose earth tones and painted on the first color...

This was exciting - it was really starting to manifest a personality now...I was going to leave it basically with the natural gourd colors and others that saw it at this stage agreed but then I had a dream that night that…

Back in February I created a Facebook group called the Cochise County Plein Air Painters. My intention was to provide artists and art lovers in our area, along with artists who enjoy painting and exploring in our area, a place to come together and share art, photos, paint out opportunities, pretty much anything related to our beautiful Cochise County and painting outdoors. After inviting those who I thought would appreciate the group, it quickly sprang to life with enthusiasm - paintings and photos of loved locations were shared, and an interest in Portal, Arizona arose. In a very short amount of time a paint
out had been planned and reservations were made for the first weekend of April to paint in Portal!

Located on the extreme eastern edge of Cochise County, only a few miles from the New Mexico border, Port…

My name is Kaia Thomas and I'm a painter living in Southeast Arizona. This blog is a journal showcasing my art and available paintings for purchase, along with the processes I go through in creating the art, and random thoughts on life.
"Let the beauty of what you love be what you do." ~ Rumi